Wine Load by D.B, Adams is a debut novel which offers an insider’s look at the way wine is made and marketed. The story takes place in Napa Valley, and if you are a wine drinker or if you are interested in that part of the country, this book might resonate with you. While the story is mostly well-written, it has its uneven spots that I will get to in a moment. If you consider yourself a wine aficionado or wine snob, you might find this book either humorous or frustrating. The story seems to be a realistic portrayal of the wine business world and describe a very believable conflict between the owners of the winery and their financial backers.One notable exception is its stilted dialogue by a major character who is not a native English speaker. This doesn’t read well on the page. There is an impressive amount of words that offer nothing to advance the narrative or add to the enjoyment of the book and detract from the story flow. I found myself skipping whole pages of this dialogue the further into the book I read
Some people think they know more about wine than they actually do. What this novel succeeds at is showing that there are a lot more subtleties involved in the making and enjoying wine than just swirling it in a glass. But there is also a lot more involved in the making and enjoying a great work of fiction, and here this book disappoints.